About Tim Rowland

Tim Rowland is a columnist, author and outdoors writer living in Jay.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dick Carlson says

    State, state, state! They already put in – what – $18m in the “Gateway” Frontier Town Campsite – turned into a campsite Boondoggle! Please let Frontier Town rest in peace!

  2. Tom Paine says

    Like so many other Adirondack Park projects, a “Money Pit”. Perhaps they can raise the Titanic and put it in the Park. At the NYS taxpayers expense of course.

  3. Joan Grabe says

    If it was such a hot attraction why did it fail ? I don’t know why the state keeps throwing money at this when there are real pressing needs in this area – someone is very persuasive at the state level. Just a few minutes ago I was reading about the DEC’s non compliance on new trails in the wilderness and yet here is someone proposing new equestrian trails. I do not live close to this prospective enhancement right off the Northway so I do not have a dog in this hunt. But seriously, why would anyone truck a horse up there to ride on some isolated trails close to a convenience store and a craft brewery? All the action is on the other side of the Northway.

  4. Nathan says

    spend how many tens of milions to restore a dead horse??? then sell to private??
    I grew up and went to frontier town and absolutely loved it as a “kid”, but times changed and Frontier town died just like catskill game farm. state, county and town needs to stop wasting a fortune. the A-frame could not even support a mcdonalds.
    a small horse riding area with a few miles of trails are not going to draw people to trailer and drive hours to ride a few hours of limited trails. something like a mountain bike trails would probably be more successful.

    • Dale A. Currier says

      I grew up in Port Henry and worked at Frontier Town 3 years. I helped build the saw mill, robbed trains and stage coaches, helped at the rodeo, placed thousands of cardboard tags on car bumpers, bussed tables at the AFrame and did maintenance in the off-season.

      It’s sad that it passed away over the years. Not sure it’s worth the cost to “renew” as I dont think people.today value that type of effort and would go there. I recently was in the area and stopped at the A Frame. Its beautiful.
      Dale

  5. David Holley says

    If in the end Frontier Town is to be sold to a private partnership, it would prudent to survey potential private partners. I believe they would help discover the highest and best use. I’m sure the state would help with infrastructure so a private partner could build the attraction
    Keep going!

  6. Pamela Howard says

    My friends and I travel with our horses from Maryland and camp at the Otter Creek trail system in Glenfield, NY every year, so I would definitely travel to Essex County and stay at the equestrian campground if you had enough trails to ride. We always dine at the local restaurants, wineries, breweries and shop at the local grocery stores while we are camping. There just needs to be enough riding to make it worth driving for!

    • M says

      And we campers who live very close to the Otter Creek trails have to PAY while you horse people get free everything! SO WRONG

  7. Jeanne says

    Please, stop the bleed! We need work on privy’s, parking lot potholes, Rangers in the field educating new campers.

  8. David Catalfamo says

    The focus on horseback riding was and is misguided, expensive and limiting a kind of romantic throwback to the Frontier origin story. I get why people gravitate to it, but it will never take off. The DEC campground if anything is more public competition for the private grounds that were already struggling in the region. The state had a proposal that would have been transformative but they misunderstood the amount of public money that it would take to make it real…so now you have what you have.

  9. Robert Guynup says

    The “Governor’s Initiative ” spent money like a drunken sailor on the campground. The only winners were the contractors who billed the state.

  10. C says

    Does anyone that has commented live in the area? Because I do! We would have the trails if it wasn’t for people like Peter Bauer. We would have the connector trails. With these trails, anyone could use them! In the summer months, horses, bikers, and hikers. And in the winter months, snowmobilers. Which would boost the economy of North Hudson and other towns. North Hudson is now, after 20+ years getting a growing economy back.

    • Nathan says

      “C” the ADA will not allow new snowmobile trails, period. lawsuits were filed and won. any seedling over 1 inch tall is a Tree. every rider from newcomb wanted snowmobile trail from Newcomb to north hudson and long lake since snowmobiles were invented, but ride to north creek and no gas in Newcomb. but it can only be built over private land and likely no continuous strip reaches to either, too far and not likely to ever happen. creating any new trail over ADA land is a non stop legal battle by every wingnut who wants no one with disabilities or motorized interests to enjoy the park.
      So connector trails will not happen AKA frontier town is a huge waste of taxpayers money, best spent in other ways. cant beat a dead horse into riding.
      no new trails on park land, limited snowmobile use, no ATV, utv, limited areas to ride bicycles or ride horses. not even a lot of cross country ski trails even.

  11. Candy says

    The locals in the Adirondacks complain endlessly and bitterly about taxes in NY State, and yet expect a steady stream of tax dollars to fund these types of dubious and unsustainable “economic development” projects. Trust me, if this was a viable and profitable initiative some developer would have bought it up years ago, and would have sent all the profits to New Jersey. And yes, I now live in the Adirondacks, but I was never able to make a living here – but that’s okay. There’s a big world out there.

  12. S. Mackey says

    We stayed at the campground in June last year. It’s a very nice campground, but the horse area looked like it had hardly ever been used. Walking around the campground, it was hard to believe that the state spent 25 million dollars on it. We checked out the old frontier town. Nature has pretty much reclaimed it. My opinion is that to repair or fix it up, would be a total waste of money. Spend our tax dollars on something of value.

  13. Brooks says

    If they build it, will they come? We drove through the campground in the mid-summer just to see it and there were maybe five sites occupied.

  14. David Dingee says

    Interesting all the comments on wasting taxpayer money. NY wasted tons of money but this seems like something worth saving

    • Nathan says

      honestly, frontier town is 95% rotted. if there was any real interest some one with money would of done something with it decades ago. the gas station was even closed for many years because it needed new fuel tanks and sales didnt really cover cost. the camp ground doesnt really have any water access, so mostly no one wants to camp there when there are many much nicer spots such as Newcomb campground, with boat launch, beachs, many nice areas to canoe and even horse riding trails way beyond frontier town. Santantoni nice place to ride horse and bike.
      places with nice lakes and camp grounds are all over, frontier town cannot really complete.
      If ny wants to spend money on needed things, more hospitals with emergency rooms. if a hiker, driver. skier, ect gets seriously hurt, well it cn be 2 hours to an emergency room in good weather, toss a good snow storm, 4 plus. heart attack and your likely to be better to take aspirin and cross your fingers.

  15. Patrick Garzone says

    My uncle Mac Anderson was the narrative there for many yrs an I have been there many times in the 80’s. I would love to see this open again!! I would absolutely bring my kids to experience what I did as a child..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *